Fellowship recipient to help prevent injuries to Australian pianists

Ms Kathryn Tan will further her understanding of the playing-related injury that continues to plague the keyboard profession worldwide

21/07/2011

A Charles Darwin University researcher has been awarded a 2011 Churchill Fellowship, which will allow her to study the prevention of injuries that continues to plague the keyboard profession worldwide.

CDU Piano lecturer Kathryn Tan (Chen Hui) will undertake the Professional Certificate Program in Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique in the United States to fulfill her dream to study in-depth and then teach what is known as the Lister-Sink Method.

Ms Tan will further her understanding of the playing-related injury that continues to affect the keyboard profession worldwide, and will return with the knowledge to assist Australian pianists and keyboardists.

“I am hoping to learn all I can about the core principles of optimal body use and take courses in the pedagogy of injury-preventive keyboard technique, as well as keyboardists’ injuries, causes and cures,” she said.

“I will be able to help pianists with playing-related injuries rehabilitate and rebuild their technique. I also hope to pass my skills on to students at CDU.”

Ms Tan’s skills and dedication have driven her to continue to study biomechanical knowledge, sensations and co-ordinations necessary to promote consistently good technique at the keyboard.

Her training is likely to benefit musicians throughout Australia, particularly pianists and keyboardists and will prepare her to be a leader in a field that is calling for greater study.

The program Ms Tan will attend is the US’s first and only fully academically approved curriculum of its kind. She will travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the US next year to study with Barbara Lister-Sink.